I'll Be Home for Christmas- Somehow
by catlovingmermaid
Summary: A Power Couple Tale, Tommy and Kim are finally sending their kids out in the world, but they plan on getting together for Christmas but with three adult children that are power rangers and them as the Power Couple, can they all get home in time?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Tis the time of year again to write a Christmas Story so I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas time.**

**Chapter One: A week before Thanksgiving**

Tommy sighed as he pulled up to his house, Thanksgiving break couldn't come soon enough for him. Sometimes he wonders if Skyler, his four year old son was better behaved then the Juniors and Seniors that he teaches. He climbed up the steps to the porch and nearly tripped over a bicycle that was laying in front of the door.

Tommy sighed as he picked the bike up and moved it out of the way, checking the color so that he didn't yell at the wrong kid, pink and white, that meant it was Ruby one of his eleven year old triplets, "Ruby, put your bike away before someone gets hurt!" he called out as he unlocked the front door, he had learned about five years ago that if he didn't keep the door lock people would just waltz right into his secret lab in the basement and help themselves to power ranger power sources.

"Daddy," a little voice called out as a bundle of blue with his wife's soft caramel colored hair and his own brown eyes tackled hug him, a piece of paper in his hand, "Look what I made at school today," he said happily, holding up a hand turkey.

"Whoa," Tommy said, scooping the little four year old up in his arms as he dropped his briefcase next to the front door, "A hand turkey as beautiful as that one deserves a place of honor on the fridge's door, don't you think?"

"Can I take it with us to show Grandma and Grandpa?" the little boy asked, beaming up at his father.

Tommy shifted the small boy slightly in his arms to get a better grip, "Why don't we make a couple more turkeys and then you can give both Grandma and Grandpa Scott and Grandma and Grandpa Oliver a turkey to hang up."

With that Tommy entered the kitchen to find red headed Grace stirring a large pot of boiling water, her identical twin was carefully cutting up vegetables for a salad while the last of the triplets, a boy with brown hair named Troy was wrestling with the glass jar of spaghetti sauce.

"Careful Troy," Tommy insisted, pinning the picture on the fridge as he watched his eleven year old son, "Don't tighten your grip to much, or you'll..."

The rest of the warning was useless as the glass jar suddenly shattered spraying red sauce over the floor and counter of the room.

"Shatter the jar," Tommy finished, setting Skyler down, "Did you cut yourself," he asked Troy, his hands were covered in red and he wasn't sure rather it was sauce or blood.

"I don't think so?" Troy said, his bottom lip quivering.

"Hey," Tommy said, "It's okay, you just need to remember that you can grip things a lot harder than normal people can, trust me, sometimes I forget that." Tommy reached for a roll of paper towels, "Now, I'm going to clean up this mess while you wash your hands off, get your mom if you do find a cut, she'll help clean it."

"But she's napping with the baby," the pre-teen protested.

"She's wrapping presents," Tommy informed him, "She knows what happened and all you have to do is ask."

Troy nodded, not at all surprise that his mother knew what was going on and that his father was aware of it, they were telepathic and had eyes in the back of their heads.

...

Tommy had just finished cleaning up the broken jar when his phone started to ring, he quickly finished washing his hands, dried them on his pants before pulling his phone out of his pocket.

"Hello this is Tommy," he said cautiously, he was tired of getting scams.

"Hi Sweetheart," his mom said through the phone, "I was wondering about a head count, who is all coming for Thanksgiving?"

Tommy frowned, thinking for a second, "Just Kim, me and the five youngest as far as I know, Ronny might show up but that's still debatable."

"Have you heard from her recently?" his mother asked.

"Not in a couple of weeks," Tommy admitted, "I'll try calling her later."

"What about Kira?" Mrs. Oliver asked, Tommy scrunched up his forehead, thinking, "Kira, I believe, I need to double check with her, but I believe that she is staying in Reefside and having Thanksgiving with Connor's family."

"Have they set a date yet? Those two have been engaged for awhile now, have they set a date?"

Tommy shook his head, setting a date had caused a lot of argument between the Oliver's and the McKnight families. Kira wanted to wait to set a date until Ronny was done with the Operation Overdrive, so that she could be Kira's maid of honor, Connor was fine with that, however, his family didn't understand that Ronny couldn't just ask for the day off. They others understood, there was no such thing as a day off for a power ranger, if you weren't on active duty you were on call, "Not until Ronny is relieved of duty, this isn't a normal job time off happens when it happens not when you schedule it."

"What about Nick?"

"He's moved to Briarwood after graduating from high school," Tommy reminded his mother, "He usually calls once a week, I'll ask, but he and Maddy are getting pretty serious. So I don't know, sorry I wasn't very helpful."

"It's okay, just text me when you find out... Actually I'll call you back in a couple of hours and check again, seeing as you'll probably forget."

...Ronny's bedroom Hartford Mansion, San Angeles...

Ronny flopped down on the large four poster bed that was in the center of the room, she was exhausted, but that wasn't anything new, since she had had most of her life energies drained from her on Halloween by the Fear Cats she had always tired easier. Not that she let anybody learn that that was what was going on.

She groaned loudly as her phone started to buzz, another mission, they just got back, she slipped her phone out of it's holster on her arm and flipped it open, "Ronny here," she said hoping that it was just a friendly call, after all the alarm hadn't gone off that they used in base.

"Hi, Ronny, it's your father," Tommy's voice filtered through the phone, "Just checking to see how things are going for your team?"

"Doing good," Ronny said shifting slightly on the bed, "We might even be done soon, I think we only have one gem to go, we're trying to figure out where to even begin looking. After we're done I'll be headed home."

"Grandma needs a head count," Tommy explained.

Ronny shook her head, "I can't say yes or no at the moment, tell Grandma that I might be a surprise guest," Ronny said, "it won't hurt anyone if she has a little more left overs than usual."

"If you come will you be bringing a special someone?"

"Dad!" Ronny gasped out, springing to her feet, "I'm much to busy to find a boyfriend at this time."

"I don't know, your mother and I, Kira and Connor, Nick and Maddy, Just wondering if you have met the one?"

"Nope," Ronny said, popping the 'p', "I haven't."

"Well Tyzonn seems nice," Tommy pointed out.

"He's..."

"Just because you are from different planets doesn't mean you can't work out, Just ask Ashley and Andros."

"I was going to say engage, the main reason he's with us is because the Fear Cats have his fiancee, I'm not butting in."

"What about Dax?" Tommy asked.

"Connor and Ethan where more mature than he is," Ronny muttered.

"Mack? Leader of the team, superstrength, pretty impressive."

"He seems to have a thing for Rose, besides, he's a robot."

Tommy blinked on his end of the phone, "Okay, that's new, and what about Will?"

"Will's nice,"Ronny admitted grateful that her father couldn't see her as her face burned bright as she thought of the Black ranger.

Just then the door opened and Will appeared, a smirk on his face, "So Rose think she figured out how to find the last gem are you coming, or are you going to keep gossiping about us?"

"Dad," Ronny said into the phone, "I have to go."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N:** I want to thank all of the wonderful people who have reviewed, and hope you enjoy this chapter. **

_** Two weeks before Christmas**_

Kim watched her oldest daughter out of the corner of her eye as she tended the baby, Ronny had only come home a few days before hand, and something about her behavior was tugging at the older woman's heart. Maybe it was just the fact that Ronny seemed to be having a hard time adjusting to life post power ranger, something she was sensitive to because she had had several talks with several power rangers about that very thing. But Ronny always turned her down when she offered to talk. Maybe she just needed to give her time to readjust to life with a large family, but she had been living in a manor with her team, so surely she was used to the noise and the constant people underfoot.

Just then the phone rung, which caused Ronny to tense up and go for her shoulder, which was where they had kept their cell phones while on duty. It was probably just a reflex, she still went for her morpher every once in a while when her alarm clock went off, and she hadn't used a morpher since she was Nick's age.

"Hi Kira," Kim said, answering the phone, pinning it against her ear with her shoulder, "What's up?"

Next to her Ronny forced herself to relax, taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out, her parents had told her that it might take her a little while to adjust to a normal life, she couldn't wait until the next racing season, all this seating around doing nothing was killing her. She needed something to do.

"Your sister's on her way over," her mother announced jolting her out of her thoughts.

"Really, that's great," Ronny hoped she sounded happy, but inside she felt ready to scream, she had been looking forward to coming home for the holidays for a while, so why did she feel like she just might explode.

A soft hand was laid on her shoulder, causing her to look up at the soft doe eyes of her mother, "Give it time Ronny," she insisted, "It will get better."

"How.." Ronny didn't even know how to form the question, how had her mother known that she felt like she was going stir crazy.

"It's hard for a power ranger to sit still for long," Kim stated, "Especially when they first come off duty, trust me when I tell you that all of your teammates are just as fidgety as you are at the moment." she paused for a second before adding, "I think Kira was worst actually, but not as bad as your father. Exercise helps, one of the reasons your uncles started their gym."

"Dad told me the same thing last night," Ronny admitted, giving her mother a small smile, "And I know this will get easier, but it still doesn't make me feel like I'm about to explode at any moment."

Kim laughed, "You my dear, are your father's daughter, he told me once that he felt like he was going to explode after he retired."

Downstairs the door open and closed, and a voice called out, "Mom, Ronny, I'm here!"

Kim placed the sleeping baby that she had been rocking into his crib, and reached over to turn the baby monitor on, "Come on, Kira said she has some important news she wanted to tell us."

* * *

Kira leaned against the wall, looking at her mother and sister, who had both taken a seat on the couch, Ronny seemed to fidget a little, which Kira totally understood, it had only been a week since her final battle and it took time to unwind from constantly being prepared to fight at a seconds notice.

"I have a record company that's interested in signing me," Kira explained.

"So you're finally going to follow through on sending my team your new album you were working on, two months ago," Ronny said with a smirk.

Kira stuck her tongue out at her older sister, "Ha ha ha, very funny, so it took longer than expected, no big deal, I've kind of been busy planning a wedding."

Kim stood up silently as the girls started to tease one another, some might mistake it as bickering but her two oldest always seemed to poke fun at each other.

"I got to go pick Schuyler up from school, try not to kill each other okay." Kim insisted.

Their mother hadn't been gone long when they heard the door to the garage open and close. Kim hadn't been gone long enough to be her back, and it couldn't have been the other kids or their father so who was it?

Kira and Ronny locked eyes, Ronny pointing to Kira and then herself before making a sweeping motion towards the door that had just opened. Kira nodded, pressing her finger to her lips. Ronny nodded her head in understanding creeping towards the kitchen.

There was pounding coming from the kitchen, whoever had broken in was making themselves at home and was making a sandwich.

Kira rose her right hand up to her head held up one finger to the ceiling and did a fast circle motion to indicate that Ronny should super speed around to the backdoor to prevent the thief from escaping.

Kira slowly counted to three, which gave Ronny enough time to get to the back door, at least if her speed was comparable to Connor's, and slowly cracked the door open.

What happened next happened so quickly that all Kira knew was that suddenly she was floating in the air and Ronny was flat on her back in the middle of the floor as a man banished a flip phone at them.

"You know," Ronny groaned as she picked herself up from the floor, "We wouldn't have tried ambushing you if you had just called out a greeting when you came in."

"Yeah," Kira agreed, we thought you were an intruder.

"I thought you two where an intruder, why were you sneaking around like that?" the man argued brushing a stand of brown hair out of his eyes as he finally put away the flip phone, causing Kira to fall to the ground.

"You're sure are fast with that wand of yours Nick," Kira grumbled, "Not only did you stop me but you tripped Ronny at super speed."

Nick smirked at his sisters, "Can't take all the credit, Ronny didn't look before she ran," he bent down and picked up a toy dump truck, "Schuyler left his dump truck by the back door."

Ronny glared at Nick, "Why are you even here, you live in Briarwood, you know with your girlfriend and your biological parents and your job at the Rock Emporium."

Nick pointed next to the door that connected to the garage where a bag of presents sat, "I asked Dad to hide presents for me, my apartments kind of on the small side and I share it with Chip and Maddy shares with Vida and those two get to acting like little children at this time of year. Needed some place to hide these that they won't find, and Reefside is only an hour away from here."

"Does that mean that you'll be home for Christmas?" a new voice asked as a little boy grabbed the dump truck that Ronny had tripped over.

"You found my dump truck thanks." he exclaimed running off.

Kim watched as Ronny looked like she was ready to chase after the boy, so she quickly return their attention to her question, "Well?"

"Up until about four in the afternoon," Nick confessed, "Mystic Force is having a big Christmas Dinner and present exchange around five thirty."

"Great that means that we will all be home for Christmas this year!" Kim said happily, "Well unless that curse your Aunt Star always is talking about strikes."


	3. Chapter 3

A/N:** I want to thank all of the wonderful people who have reviewed, and hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**_One week before Christmas Very early morning_**

_Ronny's bedroom, Oliver's house, Reefside California_

It was dark outside and the only sound that a certain blonde haired girl could hear was the rain pounding against her attic window. She knew she should be asleep, but for some reason her mind couldn't shut down to allow her to sleep. The pounding rain didn't help either, it was always louder up here next to the roof.

She shifted uncomfortably, rolling onto her side to scowl angrily at the alarm clock next to her bed as it taunted her with its bright glowing red numbers, four twenty six in the morning, and she could sleep in this morning to, no getting up to help get kids off to school so her dad could get ready for work and her mom could stay with the baby.

Four twenty seven in the morning, Ronny was about ready to flip over onto her other side when her phone set next to her alarm clock lit up and started buzzing.

Ronny groaned as she reached for it, the number looked somewhat familiar, but it wasn't a number she had in her contracts, best to be careful, she did not want to deal with a crazy fan right now, "You've reached Veronica Oliver."

_"I am terribly sorry," _a voice she recognized filtered through the phone, "_I must have dialed the number wrong."_

"No, no, Spencer, it's Ronny, sorry, guess I never told you that Ronny Robinson is just my racing name. So what's wrong?"

"_You haven't heard from Mack and his father recently have you?"_

"No," Ronny said, shaking her head, "Why?"

"_ They went on an expedition together after Thanksgiving and should have been back a week ago, but I haven't heard from them."_

"Look I'll swing by later okay." Ronny said before hanging up, glancing at the alarm clock four thirty in the morning.

...

Ronny groaned as she finally sat up, she had most likely only gotten roughly two hours of sleep, but she had promised Spencer that she would come as soon as she could, so she would just have to power through it, her parents fought monsters while asleep deprived, so she'll just have to head to San Angeles by herself.

She slowly padded down the stairs, the aroma of coffee filling the air, her dad must be up, seeing as her mother wasn't that big of a coffee drinker. Good that meant that she didn't have to brew her own, she thought to herself as she padded into the kitchen.

"...Even I can't do that." Tommy was saying into the phone.

"Can't do what?" Ronny demanded, observing her father who had the baby in one arm and a cup of coffee in his hands, it wasn't like him to admit defeat over anything.

Her father looked up and studied her, noting the bags under her eyes, before commenting, "If I knew you were pulling an all nighter, I would have had you help with JayJay, he's teething and is not happy about it."

There was a pause as whoever was on the line said something bringing her father back to his conversation.

"Right, Karone, we will get there as soon as Kim's up. Unless the planet is on the verge of destruction, in which case I can wake her up, nothing short of that is worth waking a sleep deprived pink ranger." Tommy quickly said good bye and hung up, before looking at his daughter, who was pouring herself a cup of coffee, "Your mother and I have to go to Mirinoi, can you watch the kids?"

Ronny looked at her father in disbelief, they were leaving too, what about Christmas, they planned to all be home. "I'm headed to San Angeles as soon as I'm awake enough to drive, Mack and Mr. Hartford are missing and I need to help find them before Christmas. I have to be home in time for Christmas Nick and Kira are going to be home, we are all going to be home. I don't want to be the one that ruins it." She rumbled, a sign that she hadn't had enough sleep.

"It won't matter, there is no way your mother and I can get back on time."

"What about if you take a worm hole?"

"We still only have a week until Christmas."

"It won't be much of a holiday if you guys are gone," Ronny pointed out, sliding into a chair.

"I know," Tommy looked across the table at Ronny, "Can you stay long enough for Mama to get here, we need to leave as soon as we can if we want to get to Mirinoi and back."

"Sure, I can do that, give me more time to wake up."

_San Angeles Hartford Mansion._

Ronny looked around her in amusement, the whole mansion was decked out with lights and an inflatable snowman among several other inflates, including an original red ranger in a Santa hat holding a jar of cookies labeled for Santa, "Huh, Dad has the same blow up, I remember when Uncle Rocky modelled for it, even if he didn't know it at the time." She giggled at that memory, a smile playing on her lips.

"You know, talking to yourself is a sign that you're going crazy," a new voice said from behind her snapping her out of her memories.

"That isn't quite true," another voice said, this one female, "Talking to yourself had actually been proven healthy for you and aides in the thinking process."

Ronny turned around with a smirk, recognizing her teammates voices, "Hi Will, Hi Rose, any word from Mack yet?" Surely Rose would be the first person Mack would contact, if she was right about those two interaction with each other."

Rose shook her head, her voice filled with disappointment and worry as she announced the negative.

"Don't worry," Will insisted, slapping the pink ranger on her back, "now that Ronny's here we can start planning a search and rescue."

"What about Dax?" Rose reminded them.

"He just arrived," Will said with a smirk, heading towards the front entrance, before glancing over at Ronny and warned, "brace yourself, Spencer has gone completely overboard when it comes to this time of year."

"He's wearing an ugly Christmas sweater?" Ronny asked as they rounded the corner, causing her to nearly crash into her blue teammate who snorted.

"Spencer is way too proper to wear an ugly sweater," he insisted.

"Bet you twenty bucks he is." Ronny countered.

"You are on," Dax exclaimed pumping his hand in the air at what he thought was easy money only for him to stop as the door opened to revel the butler wearing a green sweater with gold tinsel and red pompoms on it.

"So, you owe me twenty bucks, Dax." Ronny finished.

"That was hardly a fair gamble, Ronny, Will told you about Spencer's sweater."

"Dax, Veronica glad you could make it."

"Veronica," Dax snickered, "your name is Veronica?" Dax paused for a second, "Oh," Dax exclaimed, "it's just like in the movie I'm directing, the grandpa keeps thinking his granddaughter is his daughter, I bet Veronica is actually Spencer's daughter and he's just confused in his old age."

"Yeah because Veronica being my real name is as out there as someone inviting Rita Repulsa to dinner."

"Who...?" Will started to ask but Ronny interrupted him.

"My brother's biological parents have had Rita and her husband over for dinner several times," Ronny admitted, "Apparently she was a big ally to their team." Ronny rolled her eyes at the look of astonishment her friends gave her, they always had a hard time believing that she had connections to other teams, several other teams, as in all the teams that ever existed, just something that happens when your parents are the power couple.

"Let's head downstairs to the lab and see if we can't pin Mack and Mr. Hartford's last known location," Rose insisted leading the way into the house and towards the fireman poles.

...

Ronny sat down on the couch that had been moved down to the lab when Dax had complained that there wasn't anywhere comfortable to sit in the lab, Will next to her.

"Okay," Rose said, going to the main frame and starting to type the clicking of keys being the only sound for a while before she sighed, "This is going to be difficult," she confessed, "Mack no longer has a GPS locator built into his system."

"Whoa, a down side of being turned human," Dax exclaimed, "Who would have thought."

"We'll just have to do something different to track them down then," Ronny said, "My dad has equipment that can track any power ranger through their morphing energy, of course I don't know how it works though."

Rose turned back to the keyboard, her fingers flying as she typed away, "All I have to do is reconfigure the settings..."

Ronny watched as bar after bar of code flew across the main monitor as Rose typed away, any moment now, any moment now...

"Done," Rose finally said, about an hour and a half later, doing one last keystroke, "this will look for Mack's energy signature and tell us where he is."

A soft snore greeted her announcement, which caused Rose to laugh, "Okay I get it, I'm boring, no need to pretend that you're asleep."

Will smirked at Rose in amusement as he shifted Ronny to a more comfortable position, "Actually, Ronny fell asleep about an hour ago."

Dax snorted, "And you just been what, sitting still as to not wake her?"

"Of course," Will insisted, moving so that Ronny was in his arms so he could carry her up to her bedroom, "Or have you forgotten how grouchy she gets when you wake her up."

... Six days til Christmas...

"Veronica," a deep voice called out into the dimly lit room as the owner scanned the large four poster bed for signs of life.

A bump in the middle of the bed stirred slightly as a hand appeared out of the mess of blankets. The hand snatched a spare pillow and quickly retreated back into the safety of the mound of blankets.

"Veronica," the man called out again, this time with a little bit of concern in his voice, the female power ranger had fallen asleep on top of Will while the Rose had been trying to track down the Hartfords' last known location. Will, despite Dax mocking them, had carried the sleeping yellow ranger upstairs to her bedroom where she had slept through dinner, through the whole night, and well into the morning.

"Come on Ronny," a new voice said from the doorway, "Are you going to sleep the day away, or help us save the day?"

The bundle of blankets moved as a disheveled head of blonde hair poked through to stare at the other occupants of the bed room, "Ty, when did you get here?" she asked sleepily, stretching as she climbed out of bed.

"We got in last night," a softer voice explained as Vella appeared over Tyzonn's shoulder, "We would have said hi, but you uh..."

"Dax mention something about you..." Tyzonn didn't finished what he was going to say as he was shoved out of the way by Ronny.

"I'm going to kill him," Ronny muttered to herself as she pulled on her black jacket and strapped her cell phone onto the sleeve, she could just imagine what Dax had told Tyzonn about her falling asleep on top of Will the day before.

The yellow ranger looked up to find that Tyzonn and his fiancee was looking at her in amusement, "I didn't sleep well the night before," Ronny insisted, "And well, Rose... tends to get long winded."

_Amazon Rainforest_

"Do you hear anything Will?" Ronny asked as she moved a low hanging vine out of her way. According to the scan she had done the night before Mack and Mr. Hartford's last known location was somewhere near there, unfortunately the Canopy was to thick to land the Sharc safely so they were forced to go on foot.

The black ranger shook his head, swatting at an insect that had landed on his neck, "Can't hear anything over these insects buzzing," he muttered.

"Well there are estimated to be around two point five million different species here in the Amazon," Rose stated, "And more are being discovered everyday."

"You're telling me," Dax grumbled, swatting several annoying insects away, "They seem to think that I'm some sort of all you can eat buffet!"

"Why haven't you used the insect repellent that Spencer provided us with?" Tyzonn asked, puzzled at why Dax would choose to be miserable instead of using the spray that they had brought with.

"Spencer gave us bug spray?" Dax asked in disbelief.

Ronny, Rose, Will, Tyzonn, and Vella all looked at Dax in disbelief.

"Why in the world wouldn't we have bug spray?" Ronny asked shocked.

"They never mention bug spray in any of the rainforest movies I was in," Dax countered.

"Those rainforest movies were shot inside." Rose pointed out as she pulled out a green spray can and tossed it at Dax, "Might as well start using it now."

Will suddenly motioned for everyone to go quiet as he tilted his head to the right, "I think I hear something," he announced, "Someone's coming this way," he flicked his hand in the direction he was listening in, "From over there."

"Is it Mack or his father?" Rose asked causing Will to shake his head.

"The trees are too thick together, I can't tell what's coming this way."

"Maybe it's Mack," Rose insisted eagerly, stepping towards the sound.

"Or, it can be a big cat," Dax said, "This is about the place when the heroes get chased by a big cat."

"This isn't a movie Dax," Ronny insisted, pushing her way through the thick undergrowth, "it's probably nothing to worry about."

Just then a dark shape rise out of the undergrowth in front of them, large yellow eyes blinking at the rangers.

"You sure about that?" Vella asked, taking a step back.

"See big cat," Dax said with a smirk.

"Actually, that's a puma," Rose announced, "you can tell by the shape of its head, they are actually a small cat."

"If that's a small cat, I don't want to see a big cat." Will muttered as he too stepped back.

"The classification of small and big cats is a bit misleading, small cats can't roar but can purr, and big cats can roar but can't purr."

"Is now really a good time to state cat facts, Rose?" Dax groaned loudly, as he dared to look away from the large cat in front of them to glare at the pink ranger.

A rock soared overhead to land near the creature, "Shoo! Scram! Go away! Leave us alone!" Ronny's voice called out as she threw rock after rock at the predator.

"Dude you're going to get it mad," Dax hissed.

Ronny chuckled, "I grew up in the middle of the woods, I know how to scare off a cougar, now scream and yell at it as we back away, don't turn your backs on it."

* * *

Five days til Christmas

Ronny woke up to the sound of a branch snapping, causing her to sit up in the yellow sleeping bag she had been given. It took her a second to figure out where she was, in the middle of the Amazon.

She crawled out of the tent she had shared with Rose the night before, noting that she was the last one up, again. She use to be the first one up every morning.

"Morning sleepy head," Vella said from where she and Tyzonn were busy cooking breakfast over the campfire. At least that meant Breakfast would be edible, the simplistic life style Tyzonn and Vella lived on their planet meant they were use to choking over an open flame.

Ronny nodded in acknowledgement accepting a streaming cup of coffee from Rose, "Where's the boys?" She asked before taking a sip of her hot drink.

Tyzonn pointed to a tree that towered overhead, "Dax jumped up there and then pulled Will up, they're trying to see where we need to go."

"There's some sort of temple to the east of us," Will called down to them, "It's probably a day, day and a half away on foot."

"A day and a half," Ronny echoed concern in her voice, as Will and Dax climbed down the tree,"but we're already a days walk from the Sharc, and that means that we have four days round trip and five days to do it, and that doesn't include finding Mack! We aren't going to get home in time for Christmas are we?"

"Christmas?" Tyzonn and Vella asked in confusion.

"The best holiday ever," Dax explained landing back on solid ground, "It's when you give presents to your friends and family and a big fat guy name Santa comes down the chimney to leave presents for you under a tree that you put in your living room."

"If you want to believe in that nonsense," Will insisted landing next to Dax.

"It's not nonsense," Ronny insisted, "my parents are friends with Santa."

"What kind of family did you grow up in?" Will asked.

"One with power rangers for parents," Ronny said slowly as if she didn't know if Will would understand what craziness that implies.

Rose shook her head in amusement as she carefully rolled her sleeping bag up, "You know, if you guys want to get back for Christmas the sooner we pack up camp and head out the sooner we get back."

That caused the others to jump up and help, and in half an hour they had packed everything up and headed out.

* * *

Two days before Christmas:

Rose looked inside the large tent that they had finally arrived at near the ancient temple. She picked a black jacket up from the flour, smiling as she saw the red stripe on it, "Guys I think we found them." She called out to her friends outside.

"Finally," Ronny exclaimed, plopping down on a chair and taking her boots off, "I was starting to get a blister."

"You telling me?" Dax demanded, collapsing onto the ground, "my poor feet are never going to be the same again."

"Well it's your fault," Will said, plopping down next to Ronny, "you're the one who insisted that you knew how to read the compass and got us lost in the first place, we could have been here two days ago."

"Yelling at Dax isn't going to change anything," Vella insisted.

"Yes," Tyzonn agreed, "we need to focus on finding Mack and his father, Will, can you hear them."

Will tilted his head towards the temple listening for something, yes he could hear, "footsteps, someone's in there."

"It could just be another wild animal like the last ten times you heard footsteps," Dax insisted.

"Just fellow me," Will ordered as he headed into the temple.

"Are you sure we should go in," Ronny asked, looking at the sun that was already dipping low in the sky, "it's getting late?"

"We could wait," Will admitted, "but I thought you wanted to get home for Christmas, and tomorrow is Christmas Eve."

"Actually," Rose spoke up, "I agree with Ronny, there is an off chance that Mack and Mr. Hartford might come back to their base camp and we will miss them if we head inside, I suggest that we take turns watching."

"Yeah," Dax agreed, "it's not like there's anyway we can make it home for Christmas anyways."

"We're all tired, let's get some sleep," Tyzonn suggested, "we'll find Mack in the morning, and then we can figure out how to get home."


	4. Chapter 4

_Kira's hotel room New York City_

It was still pretty early when Kira was nudged awake by Connor, "Kira, Kira you got to wake up!"

"No," Kira muttered rolling over and covering her head with a pillow.

"But you got to see this," Connor insisted, pulling the blankets off from Kira.

From the look that Kira gave Connor when he did that it was obvious that the only reason that she didn't use her sonic scream was the fact that they were in a hotel that probably didn't have monster proof windows, "What is so important that you had to drag me out of bed so freaking early."

"Look," Connor said like a little kid on Christmas morning, throwing the curtains open, "It's snowing!"

Kira looked at Connor in disbelief, "So? This is New York, it snows in New York."

"I know but have you ever seen it snow before?"

"Yes," Kira sighed, getting up while wondering if she could give back her engagement ring without hurting his feelings to bad, "I was born in Seattle, they have snow, and there was that weather machine about eleven years ago, huge blizzard."

"Well I haven't," Connor insisted, "So I wanted to share it with you."

"Could you have waited a couple of hours to have shared it with me?" Kira grumbled climbing back into bed and pulling the blankets up over her head.

Connor climbed back into the bed, silently making a note that Kira was not happy when you woke her up at seven thirty in the morning.

...

It was later in the day when Kira finally stepped out of the record company building with a huge grin on her face, the meeting with the record company had gone better than she had expected, "I can't believe I did it," she announced grabbing Connor and spinning him around before planting a kiss on his lips.

Connor laughed, "Well, that's nice, but aren't we going to go play hockey or something, I mean we are just three blocks from central park. We can totally go skating, come on!" With that Connor started to drag Kira behind him to the nearest park.

Kira wasn't that surprise, Connor had been hinting that they should try ice skating while they were in the city, "Connor, I don't see how strapping razor sharp blades to our feet is a good idea!"

"Don't be ridiculous," Connor said over his shoulder, "the blades aren't that sharp."

"Still," Kira muttered, as she was dragged down the street, faster and faster until she finally shouted, "Connor, this is personal gain!" Which caused Connor to skid to a stop on a slippery spot, causing him to knock Kira down.

"Oops, sorry," Connor offered a small smile as he helped her up.

"If I break a leg I'm blaming you." Kira jabbed a finger at Connor who shrugged.

"Come on, you're a power ranger, you're suppose to learn freaky fast stuff like this."

...

"Oof," Kira gasped out as she fell over, yet again, Connor spun around to help her back up.

"Are you sure that you're not just pretending to not know how to skate so that I'll hold onto you, because I've seen you do stuff for the first time and you were a pro."

Kira glared at Connor as she pulled herself up on her feet, "Can we take a break?"

"Sure," Connor said, grabbing hold of her hand, "We can grab hot chocolate at the other end of the rink."

Kira couldn't see his face from her angle, but she could hear the smirk in his voice and knew then and there that this was just pay back for making him sit through that meeting with the record deal company. She only had time to tighten her hold on his hand before he shot off, just slow enough that no one would think he had super speed.

What happened next happened so quickly that if it wasn't for their time as rangers they would probably have had no idea what had happened. Connor, in the attempt to get out of a young inexperienced skater, quickly turned to the right, which wouldn't have been a problem if it hadn't sent Kira straight into the kid.

Kira allowed her power ranger instincts to take over, carefully flipping around, so that she would cushion the child as they both went down. Kira's arm was the first thing to hit the ice with an audible cracking sound as pain shot up through it.

...

"I'm sorry," Connor said as they sat in the emergency room waiting to be seen, "I forgot that you were behind me and I was going so fast, although why you tried to catch the kid is a good question, you should have made sure that you fell away from the kid."

"Instinct," Kira said, "A power ranger always does everything they can to prevent a civilian from getting hurt."

"The only thing you prevented was some possible bruising," Connor pointed out, "Not worth a broken wrist."

"I don't think before I leap sometimes, runs in my family." Kira said as she shifted her broken wrist a little.

"I know," Connor said, "I think it's sweet that you tried to catch the kid, you're a chip off the old block, although you aren't as scary as your parents."

"Are you applying that my father scares you?" Kira asked as the doctor finally entered the room.

"Anyone who isn't even a little scared of your father isn't playing with a full deck," Connor countered, "You forget I was there when that one guy tried hitting on your mom in front of your dad."

The doctor chuckled, "I remember the first time someone tried to make a pass at my wife in front of me."

"True, but Dad is a black belt, and from California, I've seen monsters running away from him," Kira said as the doctor went about setting her wrist, "Honestly, Mom's the one to be scared of, she's sweet as honey until you do something stupid and then... I saw TJ Johnson from the power rangers absolutely terrified by her."

...

_six days til Christmas_

Kira groaned as she shifted, whacking Connor with her cast as she did so. She gritted her teeth as pain shot through her arm. The worst part was that Connor slept through it all, the least he could do was wake up long enough to get her her pain medication.

"Connor," she hissed, slapping him again, this time with her good arm, "Connor!" she grabbed his shoulder and started to shake him roughly, trying to figure out how loud she could scream in his ear without deafening him or waking the guests in the rooms next to theirs, "Connor wake up!"

"Kira..." Connor muttered, sleepily slapping at her half heartedly with a hand before rolling over and pulling the blankets over his shoulders again.

Kira sat up, grumbling to herself as her arm pulsed with pain under the cast, she was just going to have to be an independent woman and get her own medicine. She sighed as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up.

She had only taken maybe two steps before she heard a sleepy voice call out from the bed, "What you doing Kira?"

"My arm is killing me," Kira explained, "I'm getting something for the pain."

"You could have told me and I would have happily got you something." Connor threw the blankets off and hopped out of bed.

"What do you think I was doing?" Kira demanded as she watched Connor go into the bathroom and come back out with a bottle of pills and a cup of water, "Giving you a shoulder rub?"

"Yeah and you aren't very good at it," Connor admitted offering Kira the water and pills.

"I'm right handed and my right hand is in a cast," Kira pointed out, holding up the offending limb as she talked, "How am I suppose to give you a shoulder rub?"

Connor took a step back as Kira gave him a look that he was sure her mother had carefully instructed her on, it was the same look that Kimberly Oliver used on unruly power rangers, he should know, he had lost count on how often it had been directed towards him and Ethan, "I'm sorry?" he offered sheepishly unsure if a simple apology would be enough to satisfy her.

Kira slugged him in the shoulder, "it isn't your fault you got stuck as a red ranger, at least I don't think it is."

_"Haha,_" Connor faked laughed, "very funny, so what are we going to do, we have two full days to explore the city and all of the winter fun we had planned is off the table now, Miss I had to save that Kid from getting a bruise."

"You would have done the same thing as I did if our roles were reversed."

"True, but that doesn't mean I can't tease you about it."

Kira fell silent as she pulled out her phone and scanned through some notifications, "My Aunt Tanya's in New York for a signing," she announced, "We could go see if we can catch her and maybe have lunch."

...

The tall, expensive looking building loomed overhead, the winter sun causing the gold colored french doors to glitter, coming to see Tanya had seemed like a good idea earlier, in their cheap hotel room, but now Kira wasn't so sure.

She couldn't just go up to the front desk and ask which room Tanya Sloan was in. Nobody would buy the she's my aunt line. They didn't look anything alike. The only thing she could really do was call and hope Tanya had her phone on her.

She was so busy trying to pull her glove off her good hand so she could get her phone out that she didn't notice the nine year old girl that run up to her until she found herself the victim of a tackle hug.

"Kira! What are you doing here? Are you here to see Mommy?" She asked, her arms still wrapped around her middle, "What's wrong with your arm? Did you break it? Can I sign your cast? How'd you break it? What you doing here?"

Kira let out a laugh, how mellow Adam and Tanya could have such a talkative daughter was beyond her, but then again Summer was mild compared to Katy, and her parents were two of the smartest power rangers in the universe.

"Summer," a strong, authoritative voice called out, "How many times do I have to

tell you that you can't just go about hugging stran..." The voice trailed off as the owner got a better look at Kira, "Oh, never mind, hi Kira, What are you doing here?"

"I was going to call you and tell you that I'm in New York City too, but it's a bit tricky using just my left hand."

"What happened to your arm?" A soft voice asked behind her.

"Connor," Kira said with a smirk, "He threw me into a little kid on the ice rink."

Tanya laughed, "I see how it is, blame the red ranger."

"Unless Tommy is available then blame him." Adam said.

"Blaming Dad tends to get me grounded," Kira confessed.

At this point Summer had decided that she had been ignored long enough, "I thought you said that we were going to see Santa?"

Connor gasped, "Seeing Santa, we have to do that, right Kira?"

Adam laughed, "Then why don't we call a cab."

...

The line to see Santa was long and slow, and Kira couldn't decide who was being more impatient Connor or Summer.

"Come on what is taking so long..." Connor cried out, peering over the heads of all the children ahead of him. They had already been standing in line for half an hour and there was still ten people in front of them.

Another Ten minutes crept by before they finally arrived at Santa's chair.

"Ho Ho Ho," Santa laughed, pulling Summer onto his lap, "Summer Park, I think you've grown a foot since last year."

The group only had a minute with Santa, not that it mattered, the Saturday after Thanksgiving had been the power rangers Christmas party, and he had visited with everyone then so after a few pictures where snapped they were on their way again.

...

"I don't want to go up there," Summer announced, tilting her head as far back as it could to look up at the towering Statue of Liberty. They had done a little bit of shopping, though they had done mostly window shopping and hit some of the tourist attractions around the city.

"I'd keep her," Tanya said, glancing at her watch, "But, I have to leave in half an hour and I don't think you can get back down before then."

"Don't worry," Kira said taking her younger cousin's hand in her good one, "I'll keep an eye on her, climbing ten flights of stairs doesn't sound that fun."

"Ten flights of stairs?" Connor asked, turning to the older ranger, "You sure you can handle that old man?"

"Old man!" Adam exclaimed, "I'll have you know that I can totally take you down if I wanted to," he informed Connor, loosening up so that the younger man could make out his well muscled limbs.

"Race me to the top?" Connor asked, loosening up as well.

"Fine, but no powers, just your own skill, understand, I don't have super speed."

As the two men ran off, Kira and Tanya rolled their eyes, "Boys," they said in unison.

"What about boys?" Summer asked peering up innocently at her mother and cousin.

"They like rough housing," Kira said, "Have you ever heard the story of the time your daddy got in the way of Uncle Rocky's sandwich?"

"Uh uh," the little girl said, her black curly hair bouncing as she shook her head, "What happened."

"Well, apparently Uncle Rocky had a great big sandwich that he was going to eat for lunch, but there was a monster attack, once the monster attack was over, Uncle Rocky wanted to go back to his sandwich, but your dad tried to get to the sandwich first. They ended up wrestling on the floor with my dad and Uncle Billy trying to break them apart as your Mom and Aunt Kat ate the sandwich."

Kira leaned down to whisper in Summer's ear, "To this day Uncle Rocky doesn't know who ate the sandwich."

Tanya laughed, "Yes, well, we didn't have your Aunt Kim there to keep everyone in line."

"But Uncle Tommy and Aunt Kim have always been together," Summer protested.

"Not quite." Kira said, "I remember their wedding."

"How come I wasn't invited." Summer asked.

Tanya would have said something but at that moment her phone started going off, "Well I'm needed elsewhere, I'll see you guys later okay?"

...

Five days until Christmas

It had been a fun filled day, Connor and Kira had done a tour of New York City which took up most of the day, then they had went sledding, and now they were finishing up the day by meeting up with Tanya and Adam for dinner and a carriage ride that Summer had been begging to do.

"I'm glad we're leaving tomorrow," Connor announced as he slid into the booth, "I'm not a big fan of the cold."

"In other words, I was better at sledding then him." Kira explained, sitting next to Connor.

"I'm going to have to agree with Connor," Adam said, "I can't wait to get home to warm friendly California."

"Friendly California, yeah right, more like Monsterious California," the man in the booth next to them told his dinner companion, which caused the four former power rangers to snicker, that was until his companion spoke up.

"I know, California was a nice place to live before those horrible power rangers showed up," the voice was female, and elderly at that, and one that Kira loathed hearing to the point that she was about ready to get up and leave. However, Connor reacted first.

The two people were back to back with Connor, with only a small wall with a flower pot in between, so Connor turned around, getting on his knees and called out to them, "I'll be careful about saying anything disrespectful about the power rangers, I heard that they know how to make someone disappear without a trace, and you never know when a secret identity ranger is dining next to you."

"Connor," Kira exclaimed, trying to pull him down, "Stop please."

"But they just insulted..." Connor was tossed several glares, even one from Summer who had learned at a young age never to reveal the power ranger secret. Kira even decided that it was time to bring out The Look as her aunts and uncles described it, causing Connor to squirm, "Kira's siblings, Nick and Ronny, you know, Nick from Mystic Force and Ronny from Operation Overdrive," he pointed out.

"Sorry Aunt Jill," Kira said pulling Connor down, "He doesn't like anyone talking bad about anyone else."

"Aunt Jill?" The man asked, amused.

"My niece's adopted son's adopted daughter," Jill said, as if that was a horrible thing.

"I can make her go away if you want," Adam hissed, nobody insulted the power ranger family in front of him.

"No that's okay," Kira said, "Let's not get kicked out before the food arrived."

"But let's get kicked out before the bill arrives," Adam insisted.

"Or we could just ignore them." Tanya insisted, nodding towards Summer who was watching with bright eyes from her seat.

"Aunt Tanya is right," Kira spoke up, "Dad kind of gets grouchy when his men get arrested."

…

Four days until Christmas

Snow was falling heavily around them as Kira and Connor hurried to where they were meeting Adam to take a sleigh ride around Central Park before they had to get to the airport, the vacation had been fun and all, but Kira was looking forward to getting home for Christmas.

Summer greeted them eagerly as the carriage pulled up to them, "Are you excited, I'm excited." she exclaimed jumping around before climbing in.

"I don't like the look of this snow," Tanya exclaimed, climbing in after Summer, "They probably going to start cancelling flights."

"I hope not," Kira sighed, "It's already looking like Ronny and Mom and Dad aren't going to make it, and now I might not either."

"Our flight hasn't been cancelled yet," Connor pointed out, pulling a thick blanket over him and Kira as he sat down, "And there are still four days until Christmas."

The sleigh lurched forward as the horse started off again, causing Summer to laugh out.

They were about half way through the ride when Connor's phone went off, "This is Connor McKnight," he said into the phone as he answered it.

_"Connor, this is Billy," _Billy's voice filtered through, "_I thought I would warn you that your flight has been cancelled due to the storm that is passing through."_

Connor pulled a face, "Do you know when we'll get another flight?"

_"You won't get rebooked until the storm passes, and that isn't for another couple of days. I'm sure that You'll still get home on time."_

"Any news from Kira's parents?" Connor asked.

"_They got to Mirinoi okay, but that's it. They haven't figured anything out yet. No sign of Rito, and Kim was sure that she could smell him from a mile away."_

Connor laughed, though it was hollow, "What about Ronny and Nick?"

"_I haven't heard anything from Nick, so unless he gets trapped in the Enchanted Forest on Christmas Eve, or his bike breaks down I think he'll make it home in time, as for Ronny, haven't heard from her recently, she's somewhere in the Amazon Rainforest."_

Connor hung up, meeting Kira's eyes, "Our flight was cancelled due to the snow, but I'm sure that we can get another flight home before Christmas."

"No we won't," Kira said grumpily, "The Keeper Curse will prevent us from getting home in time for Christmas." she folded her arms and stuck out her lips like a little kid which caused everyone to laugh at her.

"Don't worry," Adam said, "You forget who we are, Kira, Impossible is not in our vocabulary."

"Yes, but we also like to make things harder than they need to be." Kira muttered, "Like get snowed in until Christmas Eve or something."


	5. Chapter 5

_Week before Christmas_

_Nick's apartment Briarwood._

A large crashing noise caused Nick to jump out of bed and glare at the alarm, six o clock sharp, what in the name of Zordon was Chip up to at this hour?

He quickly rushed into the main room to find his roommate trying hard to straighten the small christmas tree Chip had insisted they get even if they weren't planning on celebrating Christmas there this year.

"What in the world are you doing?" Nick demanded, shooting his former teammate a look, maybe Maddy had been right when she had expressed concern over the fact that the two of them planned on rooming together.

"I wanted to see if I could use the tree as a portal to the forest, Claire found a baby reindeer," the yellow ranger insisted.

Nick was about ready to scream, this is what happened if you gave his cousin a cell phone, "The portal only works on real trees, not artificial trees like that one."

"Oh," was the only response as Chip righted the tree and moved into the kitchen as Nick, still grumbling to himself stalked back into the bedroom.

_Briarwood around two in the afternoon_

Nick groaned as he tossed his apron onto its hook, he hated the Christmas season, well okay, he didn't hate it for say, he just didn't like how everyone seemed to forget how to act at this time of year. His last shift alone had two fist fights and twelve different curses place on his head, he was ready to go to Dragon Root and unwind, before he actually cursed someone.

He met up with Chip across the street from the Rock Porium by the tree they often used to jump dimensions. Nick frowned, "Xander said you called in sick." The red ranger gave the yellow ranger a once over, he seemed perfectly healthy accept the fact he was wearing a wool scarf and had a basket of carrots over his arm.

"Well... um," Chip tempered, "Are you going to Root Core?"

"Yes," Nick said shortly.

"Did you know it snowed last night in the forest?"

"Udonna has ice powers, if she wanted to she could have snow in the middle of July." Nick pointed out as he casually leaned against the tree, going through the portal.

_The enchanted forest_

Nick stepped out of the tree into a powder of fluffy white stuff that crunched as he stepped into it. Over his usual tunic and leggings was a thick heavy winter coat and his usual cape was replaced by a heavy cloak. He shook his head, he should have known that the portal would give him suitable clothes for the weather in the forest.

He looked around to make sure that Leanbow wasn't nearby, his father wanted him to be a powerful warrior and had a tendency to ambush him when he wasn't expecting it. The coast was clear. He stepped out into the open.

The attack was sudden and swift but not that surprising, to be fair, he had half expected an ambush as soon as he entered the forest. Though who was throwing the snowball was unexpected.

"Dad," he cried out as he scooped up a handful of snow.

Leanbow dodged the snowball, "you should always be on guard son, always be on guard."

Just then a low flying broom, no doubt Vida, sped past causing Nick to have to dodge out of the way, which caused him to skid on some ice, trip over a root and land in a snow drift, with his head hitting hard against the trunk of the tree.

_Root Core the Enchanted Forest_

_Six days before Christmas._

Nick woke up to a pounding headache, just how hard had he hit his head the day before? He shifted his weight as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed sitting up. He looked around the room, curious, this must have been his room from when he was an infant. The cartoony pictures of dragon and elves and fairies told him that besides removing the baby furniture for more age appropriate furniture nothing had changed in the room for almost eighteen years.

Nick stood up, straightening the old fashion night shirt he had been given the night before to wear while his usual tunic and cape dried. At least it was red.

He quickly located his clothes that he always wore in the Enchanted Forest, his tunic, cape, and fitted pants, next to them were heavy winter boots, a red cloak, mittens and a red wool hat. The others must have complained that they didn't have any warm clothes to wear in the snow.

He hurried down the long hallway trying to find a way to the main room.

"Morning Bowen," Clare called out as he finally stepped out into the large main room from where she was hovering over a cauldron.

"It's Nick actually," Nick reminded her, just like he had to remind his parents as well.

"You hit your head pretty good last night," Clare continued unfazed by his correction.

"I guess, everything's a little fuzzy, I remember having a snow ball fight with Leanbow and Daggeron and then Chip and V flew past on their brooms, and after that," Nick shook his head, and then immediately regretted it as the pounding in his head intensified.

"You want some Pain Potion?" Clare asked holding up a vial with some sort of green sludge in it, "I whipped up a new batch just yesterday."

Nick eyed the potion dubiously, Clare was getting better with potion making and spell casting but that did not mean he was going to take some sort of potion that Clare made herself, "Did Udonna help you make it?" he asked.

"Nope," Clare said proudly, " I made it all by myself."

"You know what I think I'm good," Nick insisted, heading towards the exit, he could wait until he got back to his apartment and could take something.

...

_Five days until Christmas_

Nick woke up with a groan, his head was pounding and it felt like someone had stuffed cotton balls in it. It only meant one thing, he had came down with a cold. "Aachoo," he sneezed, which of course got Chip's attention.

"You okay there Nick?" the yellow ranger asked concern in his voice as he looked up from his bed, where he was sitting, pulling on his socks.

Nick shot him a look, "Yeah, it's just a little bit of a cold, nothing much we can do about it, healing spells don't even work on colds."

"Why is that?" Chip asked, "You'd think magic can do just about anything."

"Even magic has limitations and rules that have to be followed," Nick pointed out, "But if you want to discuss how to bend rules, my Aunt Star is a natural, she knows all the exceptions."

"I know but it would be nice to just wave our wands and get rid of the cold."

"What doesn't kill us makes us stronger." Nick said, sniffling as he reached for a tissue on his night stand.

"Just don't give it to me." Chip muttered leaving the room, "If you need anything I'll be at V's."

...

Christmas Eve

Nick entered Root Core only to find that Clare was on her hands and knees looking underneath the table.

"What's going on Clare?" Nick asked, nervously, sometimes his cousin could cause a lot of trouble.

"I found a baby reindeer the other day," Clare said, "And now I can't find him anywhere."

"He must have returned to the woods, he is a wild animal after all."

"But we talked to Santa," Clare insisted, "He's going to take him home to the North Pole but we can't find him any where."

Nick groaned, "You do realize how big the forest is right?" Nick asked, "and Santa is coming tonight."

"Will you help me?" Clare asked, batting her eyes at him.

"You do realize that I'm suppose to head home tonight, right?" Nick stated, "I promised."

"How long do you think it will take to find one small reindeer?"


	6. Chapter 6

Seven days before Christmas

Tommy was sitting at the table cradling a cup of coffee while trying hard not to jar the sleeping baby that was perched on his shoulder, when the phone rung, causing him to groan. He had been up half the night with JayJay, who had decided that he didn't like sleeping, and he wasn't ready to be civil to anybody over the phone, for crying out loud it was seven in the morning.

"What do you want?" He growled.

"Woah," a female voice called out in shock through the phone, "someone needs a monster to fight."

"Karone?" Tommy said shocked, "what's wrong, you usually call Andros, not me."

"I know, but there's something strange happening here on Mirinoi," Andros's younger sister insisted, "there have been some reports that a skeleton man has been spotted lurking in the jungle."

"Rito?" Tommy asked, surprise, no one had seen or heard of Rita's little brother since before the invasion, he had always assumed that he had been destroyed, "Are you sure Karone?"

"I think so, Rito's the only skeleton man I can think of," Karone explained.

"Kim and I will be there as soon as we can," Tommy explained, "it will take a while because Kim doesn't like leaving JayJay when he is so young."

_"But you will come right?"_

"Yeah, Ronny's here, and she knows how to take care of the younger kids, and she can keep up with Schuyler. Even I can't do that."

"Can't do what?" a sleepy voice asked in confusion as Ronny entered the room, large dark bags under her eyes.

"If I knew you were pulling an all-nighter, I would have had you help with JayJay, he's teething and is not happy about it."

_"Tommy I think you forgot that you're on the phone with me." _Karone reminded him, it was a common fact that the leader of the power rangers would sometimes forget he was on the phone with someone if someone else enters the room which has lead Jason and his teammates to overhear things they didn't need to overhear between him and Kim.

"Right, Karone, we will get there as soon as Kim's up. Unless the planet is on the verge of destruction, in which case I can wake her up, nothing short of that is worth waking a sleep-deprived pink ranger." Tommy quickly said goodbye and hung up, before looking at his daughter, who was pouring herself a cup of coffee, "Your mother and I have to go to Mirinoi, can you watch the kids?"

Ronny looked at her father in disbelief, "I'm headed to San Angeles as soon as I'm awake enough to drive, Mack and Mr. Hartford are missing and I need to help find them before Christmas. I have to be home in time for Christmas Nick and Kira are going to be home, we are all going to be home. I don't want to be the one that ruins it."

"It won't matter, there is no way your mother and I can get back on time."

"What about if you take a wormhole?"

"We still only have a week until Christmas."

"It won't be much of a holiday if you guys are gone," Ronny pointed out, sliding into a chair.

"I know," Tommy looked across the table at Ronny, "Can you stay long enough for Mama to get here, we need to leave as soon as we can if we want to get to Mirinoi and back."

...

Tommy rubbed his eyes, boy, was he tired, as he put in the coordinates into the computer, "This was not what I had planned for my Christmas break," he confessed.

"You picked the wrong hobby if that's the case," Kim said, leaning over him to double-check the coordinates, "This is typical for power rangers, especially us."

"I don't remember getting ask, 'Do you want to be a power ranger?'."

"You aren't exactly known for your memory," Kim smirked, pressing a kiss on his cheek.

"And you, my dear," Tommy added, "Have Mom's Brain."

"What?" Kim demanded, looking at her husband in confusion.

"Rita never gave me an option." Tommy reminded Kim, his voice rough with emotion, he didn't like thinking about his evil green ranger days, and he definitely does not like talking about it.

Kim groaned, "Tommy, I'm..."

"Hey, at least I get to tease you for once," Tommy stated as he hit the enter button, the autopilot will take care of navigating for them. Even with it navigating for them it would take them a couple of days to reach Mirinoi, "Let's see, two days there, two days back, seven days 'til Christmas, that gives us two days on Mirinoi to find Rito."

"If it is Rito," Kim muttered, "This isn't the first false alarm we responded to."

"But we never had it confirmed that he was destroyed with the rest of the villains, and so we need to keep an eye out for him."

"I know, I just don't like leaving the kids with someone that..." Kim trailed off, "What if they are attacked or something, we won't be there to protect them."

Tommy laughed, "The Triplets have learned to control their powers by now, they know how to activate the emergency lockdown mode and Ethan and Trent are home for the holidays. We need to have faith that they know what to do, they aren't much younger than Justin was when he became a power ranger."

"I am not ready for them to become power rangers yet," Kim confessed.

"They will eventually become rangers, with the influence we have on them, as well as the influence of their older siblings and our friends, all they really need is a monster to fight."

"And a morpher," Tommy insisted, "It's too dangerous to try to use power from the morphin' grid without a morpher."

"Unless they're us," Kim added softly, "Right."

... Five Days before Christmas...

Kim stepped out of the rocketship and groaned, stretching, the ultra jet might have been built with comfort in mind but that didn't mean that being cooped up in it for two days straight while it went three times the speed of sound was fun.

Leo smirked as he watched them stumble around for a second, before getting feeling back in their legs, "So glad you can make it," he said, trying to stifle his laugh. It wasn't worth getting the Heart of the Power Ranger mad at him, he already saw her angry once, when the red rangers went to the moon together, and he did not want to be on the receiving end of that.

"Hi Leo," Kim nodded, "Where are the others, and where is this Skeleton Man?"

Leo frowned straight to business, no trading news or insults, was she really a power ranger?

"She doesn't like leaving our children with a non-ranger for very long," Tommy explained, clapping his hand on the younger red ranger's shoulder, "So let's get this done with before she makes us all miserable, you only have to deal with her once or twice a year, I put up with her daily."

Kim shook her head, giving Kendrix, who was standing next to her a look, "Sounds like someone is asking to sleep on the couch tonight."

"Kendrix is that way too," Leo stated in front of Kendrix and Kim, "If it wasn't for Karone and Maya I doubt that we will ever have date nights."

Kim looked at Kendrix with amusement, "Boys," she said, "They pretend that we are the ones that are overprotective, yet they are worse than we are."

"Especially with Kaya," Kendrix confessed, "I feat that Leo is going to go crazy once she starts bringing home the boys."

"I think that the only thing that stopped Connor from mysteriously disappearing was the fact that he was one of us."

"Come on Maya has been scouting around the last known sighting of Rito," Leo said, "What are you going to do with him if it is him?"

"Mystic doesn't want us to hurt Rito if at all possible," Tommy said, "That's why we are here, we can decide if he's still a threat or not."

"I doubt it," Kim said, "With Rita Mystic Mother now, he doesn't have anyone to give him instructions and Rito is just a foot soldier."

...Three days 'til Christmas...

Kim and Tommy followed Maya through the woods, she had the advantage of living on Mirinoi most of her life and knew the woods like the back of her hand, something that the other rangers respected her for.

"His camp is in the clearing over there," she whispered pointing to a group of trees, "We figured that you would want to deal with this yourself, you have more experience with Rito than we do."

Kim sniffed the air and wrinkled her nose, "It's Rito alright I can smell the stench from here."

"Well," Maya said with a soft smile, "I guess I'll wish you good luck and get out of the way, I don't have my saber so I don't have powers at the moment."

Kim and Tommy crept forward until they could see the camp. A tent was set up in the center of the clearing next to a campfire, and next to the campfire, sitting on a log was a skeleton man, roasting a fish on a stick.

"Rito," Kim called out softly, using a tone of voice she usually reserved for young children. Tommy bit back the urge to stand up and start shouting at Rito. Kim wanted to try things her way before they tried things his way.

Rito jumped up, twirling around, looking, no doubt, for the source of the voice, "Who's there?" he demanded.

Kim stepped out into the clearing, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you, Rito."

"How do you know my name?" Rito asked, shocked.

"You don't recognize me?" Kim asked, sending a concerned thought to Tommy as she did.

Rito scrutinized the woman in front of him, Caramel colored hair, done up in a loose braid, soft doe colored eyes, filled with worry and concern but with a hint of power and strength in there too. She was wearing a light pink sweater, and held herself with pride and confidence, "You're a power ranger!" he gasped out, peddling backward.

Tommy felt Kim cringe more than see it, Kim hadn't wanted to spook Rito, and now he was heading straight towards him, _At least we aren't going to lose him, _he thought towards Kim.

Rito froze in his tracks, he had spotted Tommy, "I'm surrounded," he cried out, then he studied Tommy, "If your hair was a little longer you would look like that red ranger I use to fight," he commented.

_Can I please knock him out? _Tommy pleaded.

_No, we promised his sister that we won't hurt him unless absolutely necessary," _Kim reminded him, before adding out loud, "Don't worry Rito, Tommy won't hurt you."

"Tommy," Rito said, "That's the same name as the Leader of the..." he trailed off as realization hit him, "You're the Power Couple!"

"Wow," Tommy said, "He's smarter then I remember, I thought we were going to have to tell him who we were."

"I'm surprised that he recognized you before he recognized me," Kim confessed, "I didn't think that I changed that much."

Tommy glanced at the ground, forcing himself not to think what he was thinking loud enough for Kim to hear.

"You aren't as thin as you use to be," Rito said, unaware of how dangerous that statement could be.

However, Kim just shrugged, "I gave birth to five children, three of them on the same day, I know that I'm not the same size as I was when I was in high school."

"So why are you here?" Rito asked, returning to his campfire, "You still mad at me for what happened when you were teens?"

"No," Kim said, sweet as ever, "Your sister is worried about you, that's all."

"She is?" Rito asked, "I didn't think that Rita cared."

"I don't think that Rita did care," Tommy pointed out, "But your sister is going by the name of Mystic Mother now and she does care."

"She wants us to bring you home, she and Zedd has a nice place now."


End file.
